December 28th, 2008

On Christmas day, myself and 2 friends of mine decided to see Ghajini. We got tickets at Mayajaal and headed there for the night show.

Movie Review

The movie is good. For those who have seen the tamil version already, you can guess scene by scene of what would happen & you will not be wrong. It is a scene by scene by rip off from the tamil version, except the climax. Everywhere, just replace Aamir Khan with Suriya and its more or less the same tamil film. All the crew I knew of, except Aamir Khan, Asin’s ad agency’s manager (played by Tinu Anand) and Nayanthara’s role (played by Jiah Khan), were the same as in the tamil film. Hence, the movie is not that much of a surprise. The director has thrown in more scenes of violence than in the tamil version.

Asin has acted brilliantly. It was far better than how she did it in the tamil version. Somehow I felt, her acting had more maturity in the Hindi version and it felt far more ‘complete’ than how she performed in the tamil Ghajini. Needless to say, Aamir did a poor job. Except for his 8 pack body, there was no other “wow” acting moment in the scenes of Aamir. Given his acting supremacy, he should have done a better job. Comparisons are inevitable with the tamil Ghajini. Seeing Suriya in the executive’s role gave a complete feel where as Aamir did a poor job there. Suriya’s acting was more natural while that wasn’t the case with the hindi actor. In many places, I observed that Aamir had flaunted needless ‘gethu’ in the executive role, whereas Suriya’s executive role eased him in to place.

Jiah Khan’s role was more creamy in this film. She had lot of prominence in her scenes & I felt she did a good job. Except in a few places where she was emoting badly, she did a good job (even better than Aamir ).

Climax …. Yes! there’s a change in climax in the hindi version. There’s no double action of the villian in the hindi version. Instead, Aamir chases the villian and thrashes his head in just the same way the villian did to him and his love earlier in the movie. What Indian movie is that without needless heroism? There’s lot of “hero is supreme” moments here. I won’t give out more details to spoil the climax. So go ahead and enjoy the movie. Climax was one of the better scenes in the whole movie.

Mayajaal

I don’t recommend Mayajaal to see Ghajini. We were given the tickets for the movie on Screen 3. As soon as I entered the theatre hall, my first reaction was, “Oh! Shit”. It stank. Literally. Chairs were not comfortable and within minutes, my back was aching. The theatre is very small and the screen is even smaller. In most places, carpets are off their holdings. Between shows, the hall was not even cleaned. Therefore, there were lot of cups and plastic covers strewn around.

May be other screens are good. But 120 bucks for this screen is totally not worth it. May be 40 bucks. But surely not more. Snacks are priced at atrocious rates. I don’t see why multiplexes should charge atrocious rates for snacks. About 5 spoons of bhelpuri cost 35 bucks. A small pack of popcorn cost Rs. 40/-. Its not the question of money here. Its about the value we receive for the amount we pay, which is zilch.

I highly don’t recommend Mayajaal for another movie. Its useless to drive 30 KM from the city, to sit in stinking theatres, to watch remade movies. Nevertheless, the movie was good but please don’t see it in Mayajaal. Totally not worth it!

Dude, Mayajaal has been around for years and we also have been wailing for an equal time.. Its one shitty [apologies for foul language] place and deserves a bashing from the city for having burnt our money.

Service is very bad and the vendors are under an impression that they are the volunteers serving the less fortunate in Annadanam service.. Well every one knows why we still go there!! its the number of shows the theatre runs in a day for the new movies… we can rather spread word to JUST WATCH movies there and not use their food court.

Satyam is one good theater in Chennai and wish they open up in OMR/ECR with the same capacity of 10+ screens and 40+ shows like Mayajaal..